With the leaves shading her neck, she sat directly below a cluster of beautiful purple globes and attempted to pluck them off using only her mouth. She had surprised a bee doing this last year, but had been lucky because he was fat and full and had been too sleepy to sting.
The time went quickly in the morning, the sun never got fierce until after lunch. She chose her hideout very carefully, staying ahead of the pickers until she was full of grapes then dropping behind them when her belly felt too big.
She let the noise and laughter wash over her, not everyone had such a fun day. She had watched harvesting at Uncle Doug’s, he had a machine. It had scared her, grunting and shaking its way through the vines, taking grapes and leaves, leaving the vines looking as if a storm had gone through. She had begged daddy not to buy a harvester and had been content when he said he wouldn't have the money for another three years.
Their vineyard was much nicer. It was noisy, but it was filled with happy chatter and soon they would all get to sit at the long table to have lunch.You couldn't have lunch with a machine.
After the pickers headed back to work, Anna thought the table looked like the vines at Uncle Doug’s property after the machine had gone through. She sneaked back into the rows before she could be caught to help clear the table.
There was a lovely vine near the end of a row, she tucked herself under it brushing a few webs aside. She used to be scared of spiders but every spider she saw ran away. She closed her eyes for a minute and woke to hear her mum and dad talking. She lay very quietly.
Mummy said” that money will make a big difference, we could even get a harvester like Doug earlier than we planned”
“If I hadn't promised a certain someone that it would be three years before we got one,” daddy replied.
“She won't remember, it was only three years because we had to save, now with this windfall...”
“I'm still not sure that a harvester is the way to go, yes it's cheaper, but it will take the fun out of harvesting, less social. No, I promised her. We can wait three years. Three years isn't long”.
When they left, Anna skipped back into the middle of the pickers, she was surrounded by gossip and laughter. Daddy was wrong, she thought, three years is a very long time.